Coffey hoping for a big senior year with Merrimack girls volleyball

For Jen Coffey, it was love at first spike.

OK, maybe not the first one, but it wasn't long after Coffey picked up a volleyball as a freshman that the Merrimack High School senior fell for the sport.

After years of playing basketball and softball, Coffey decided to give another sport a try, and in no time, she liked it enough to stop playing the others.

"I just fell in love with it the first time I started playing and I wanted to keep playing," she said. "I can only relate it to a buzzer-beating 3-point shot to win a championship game, that's how I feel every time I get a kill. It's an amazing feeling."

Coffey has had the feeling plenty of times in the last few years. During her freshman year, the Tomahawks were loaded at the varsity level, reaching the Division I championship, and Coffey spent the year playing on the junior varsity.

"We had a solid core of kids who were already in tune to the system, so Jen watched them, just playing on the JV team," Merrimack coach Tammy Lambrou said. "Her sophomore year, she came in, made varsity and she was waiting for that moment where she would have perfect contact on the ball. That was it and she was off and running from there."

Elevated to that starting spot as a sophomore, she’s helped lead Merrimack to the semifinals the last two seasons, and has her sights set on taking the next step this season.

"I'm so excited for this season," Coffey said. "There's so much I can still do. I can still improve on passing, serving, hitting the ball. Passing especially, that's one of my weakest spots."

If she needs the extra work passing, Coffey has the perfect person to work with whenever she wants to - her younger sister, Jo, who is also Merrimack's setter.

"We both push each other a lot," Jo Coffey said. "She'll always tell me if I'm doing something wrong, and I'll tell her if she's doing something wrong. We'll help each other because we can play in different positions and we can watch each other.

"I love playing with Jenny because she pushes me to be a better player. It makes the game that much more fun."

Lambrou believes that having both girls on the varsity last year helped the rest of the team come together as a unit.

"It's good to see that, because they play different positions, they have to get along," she said. "Even last year, during the season, with both of them on varsity, they meshed really well together, and playing a whole year of travel team together, definitely helped.

Both sisters have a chance to do something that not many players have done in the 16 years Lambrou has coached at Merrimack, and that's play at the Division I level in college.

Jen Coffey will be just the third player to do so, as she's already committed to play at Quinnipiac University. After taking visits at Boston College, the University of New Hampshire and Northeastern, Coffey felt at home with the Bobcats.

"As soon as I stepped on the campus, I fell in love with it completely," she said. "The stress is completely off my shoulders."

After watching her older sister go through the process of selecting a college, Jo Coffey is hoping to be able to do the same when its her turn to be a senior.

"I definitely want to try to go Division I," she said. "She (Jen) always motivates me to be the best volleyball player I can be. Having that as your sister, that inspiration really helps."

But before that happens, the sisters and the rest of the Tomahawks hope to get past the semifinals and back to the championship match. One thing that Lambrou isn't worried about is the dedication of her top senior.

"The discipline (Jen) has is amazing and she continues to stay disciplined," Lambrou said. "Every day, she's improving, even since the end of her club season at the end of May to now, which is just awesome."